


Scrambled Egg Omelets

by kuonji



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Insecurity, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-03-30 10:15:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13949448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuonji/pseuds/kuonji
Summary: Matt is making omelets and breaking eggs, but things turn out all right in the end.





	Scrambled Egg Omelets

The sizzling sound of frying eggs added its welcome contribution to the scene. Yamato "Matt" Ishida sniffed in a large lungful of the scent and, despite the pervading smell of rotten eggs that the hot springs emitted, he sighed in satisfaction. He looked over at where Sora was carefully breaking another egg to fry on the heated slab of rock she was using as a stove. She glanced up, meeting eyes with him, and shot him a thumbs-up sign and a grin, which he returned, before turning her attention back to her eggs.

Everyone was in a happy, almost festive, mood at the tangible prospect of food. They hadn't had a good meal in a while. Granted, Joe's fear that they were stealing the eggs from their rightful owner were probably not unfounded, but at the moment, Matt really couldn't care less. He'd rather live a thief than die of starvation. Besides, what with telephone booths and cable cars showing up out of nowhere, he really didn't think that a random refrigerator was anything more than another part of the weird landscape of the Digiworld. Particularly when it was full of perfectly edible eggs that they all desperately needed.

Come to think of it, they'd effectively wrecked those telephone booths and the cable car in their fights with the evil digimon, hadn't they? And no one had showed up yet asking the kids to pay a bill for them. According to their digimon, there _were_ no other people on this island, only more digimon. Joe was just worrying too much.

Matt tapped an egg against the edge of a rock and broke it neatly into the plastic first aid supplies box that he was using as a bowl. He added several more eggs, then, after a brief search, picked up the pair of whittled twigs he was using for chopsticks. He laughed inwardly as he did so, remembering that, in spite of his protests against taking the eggs, Joe had been the one to make chopsticks for everyone. The reason he gave was that he had gotten the best results in woodshop, and he didn't want anyone else cutting their fingers off.

T.K. had wanted to help.

Matt and everyone else had hastily insisted that he find something else to do instead. All them remembered the near-accident that had occurred in woodshop a week ago.

"Hey, Matt! Whatcha making?"

Speaking of whom...

Matt smiled over his shoulder at his little brother, who was running up to him with Patamon clinging to his oversized baseball cap. "An omelet," he replied, beating the eggs in his bowl, er, box.

"Ohhh, my favorite!" T.K. smiled broadly in the innocent way he had and plopped down to sit next to his brother.

Patamon leaned over to look quizzically into the bowl. "What's an omelet?" he asked, wrinkling his nose slightly.

T.K. reached up to lift his winged pal off his head and look into his large blue eyes. "It's a kind of breakfast food. It's an egg thing wrapped around something else like cheese or ham or bacon or tomatoes or something. It's really, _really_ good!"

"Oh, okay. Can I have some?" Matt bent over his own slab-of-rock stove, hiding his smile at Patamon's ready acceptance of T.K.'s less than clear explanation. His brother's digimon really was a perfect match for him in innocent charm.

"Of course you can," T.K. was answering. "But you'll have to wait till it's done. Right, Matt? Patamon can have some, right? You make the best omelets in the whole world!"

Matt shrugged with a mild, "Sure." Inside, he was beaming indulgently at his little brother's faith in his cooking. He finished beating the eggs and started carefully pouring the frothing mixture onto the stove.

"Matt..." T.K. said, looking over his shoulder. "All we have are eggs. So what are you gonna put inside?"

"Um," Matt smiled sheepishly. "I guess... more eggs. I was thinking of scrambled."

T.K. shrugged. "Okay." He kept a straight face for all of two seconds before he started giggling. "You hear that, Patamon? Matt's making scrambled egg omelets for us." He laughed, and Patamon joined in, even though he had no idea what was so funny. Digimon obviously wouldn't know how ridiculous a scrambled egg omelet was.

Well, make do with what you've got. That was the motto of the day since they'd fallen (literally) into this strange world. Matt mixed the eggs around on the stove, scrambling them as he had said. Watching the coagulating pieces of egg break apart under his chopsticks, he couldn't help but remember the last time he'd had scrambled eggs -- when making breakfast for his Dad and himself just before leaving for summer camp. When was that? An eternity ago?

He wondered what Dad was doing right now. Was he worried about him? They'd been missing for four days already. Maybe he was running special bulletins on his TV station right now:

_"Seven kids missing from summer camp! No clues yet, but foul play is suspected."_

Yeah, right. He probably hadn't even noticed that Matt was gone. He was busy with his work all the time, and Matt only bothered to call him from camp once a week. There was no reason his dad would be suspecting anything yet.

He wondered... if Mom might worry about him if she were still living with them. She had always been there to look out for him and T.K. Dad loved him and looked out for him too, he knew that. But it was different.

"Matt, the eggs are burning!"

Matt jerked back to reality in time to scrape the scrambled eggs off to the side of the stove where it was away from the direct heat of the fire underneath. Oops. He'd zoned there for a minute. He frowned, angry at himself for losing it.

"Is something wrong, Matt? You seemed really out of it."

"Nah, I'm fine, T.K." He shrugged it off, feeling stupid for the thoughts he'd been having. Mom and Dad were divorced, and that was it. No use wondering what it'd be like if reality were different than the way it was. Besides, he hadn't seen Mom in a long time, much less lived with her. She probably wasn't as perfect as he remembered, anyway. His friends at school always complained about how their mothers nagged them and babied them and embarrassed them all the time.

Although... He glanced at T.K., who was gazing back at him with a slightly worried expression on his round face. Mom was obviously taking good care of his brother. He was a smart, happy kid who liked everybody and whom everybody liked. _He_ never complained about being nagged or babied. _He_ never said or did stupid things that made everybody hate him. _He_ never had problems with their parents at all, because he certainly wasn't the one whom they had used to fight over...

Matt was sure that Mom must be worried about her perfect son right now. She was probably searching frantically for him, in fact. He bet that she didn't feel she could count on Matt to keep it together and to bring his brother back safe.

"You sure you're okay, Matt?"

"Of course, T.K." At his little brother's continued look of doubt, Matt added in sudden irritation, "I'm fine, okay? Just leave me alone."

T.K.'s face fell. "Okay. I'll go help Sora, I guess," he mumbled, and got up, running off in the girl's direction. Patamon flew after him, calling for him to wait up. Matt stared for a moment, regretting his words. But then he blew out a frustrated breath and turned back to his omelets. T.K. would be happier with Sora's company, anyway. She was always so nice and thoughtful of others. Unlike certain people.

He cracked an egg with undue force.

"Matt, I got some herbs for the omelets." Matt didn't look up at Gabumon's quiet voice, too busy fishing pieces of eggshell out from the mess he had created in his makeshift bowl.

"Yeah, thanks," he muttered. "What took you so long?" It came out sharper than he had intended, but Gabumon made no indication that he had noticed. He sat down next to Matt and handed him a bundle of grasses.

"Joe said we should make sure they're safe to eat," he explained. "Don't worry. Palmon says they're fine."

"Yeah, well Joe needs to seriously lighten up." Matt winced. He didn't need to be so mean. "Thanks," he added.

Gabumon shrugged. "You're welcome."

He started beating the eggs to start the first omelet. At least there was one thing he could do right.

If this were an adventure game, each of them would have a Role. Tai was the front guy, the scout, the brawn. Izzy was obviously Tai's partner, the brains, the ideas man. Sora was the mom, looking after everyone. Joe was the dad. Mimi... well, she was the pretty one. T.K. was the baby. And Matt? He didn't know what he was. Generic kid, he guessed. Like a Red Shirt, just there to fill up space, essentially useless. He was just an extra cog in the machine here. The scrambled eggs in the omelets. Something you made do with because there wasn't anything better.

He scowled at the turn his mood had taken. He shouldn't be thinking jealous, selfish thoughts right now, when they were actually in a pretty good place for once. Warm place to sleep, dinner waiting, what more could a lost kid transported to another world ask for?

"Are you all right, Matt?"

Another thing to be grateful for: his own personalized best buddy. "I'm fine, Gabumon."

Gabumon shifted slightly but stayed silent. Maybe he hadn't noticed anything, anyway. Maybe the heat was just getting to him, with his fur and all.

"Hey, Matt, what's up?" Matt cringed at the familiar voice. All he needed right now was goggleboy of the huge hair intruding on his personal space.

Tai, ever oblivious, plopped himself down next to him.

"Hello, Tai." Gabumon, ever courteous, greeted the boy. Matt figured that would suffice for the both of them.

"Hey, omelets! I love those things!"

"Good for you," Matt said shortly, sending go-away vibes with all his might.

"I heard T.K. ranting about them, too. You cook often at home?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. But we don't live together, remember?" Matt said, acidly.

Tai looked suitably chastised. "Right..." he said, awkward.

Matt relented a little. "I learned from my Mom. We both liked her omelets."

"Oh." Matt felt Tai watching with intent eyes as he wrapped up an omelet and put it to the side to keep warm. He was pleased that it had come out perfectly. No way would he live down scratching an omelet under Tai's gaze.

"Hey, will you teach me?" Tai asked, out of the blue.

"Huh?"

"How to make them. Omelets."

"Uh..."

"You're a very good cook, Matt. You could share that." Gabumon looked at him with smiling eyes.

"That is, unless the one you just made was pure luck." Matt bridled at the tease. He wasn't one to turn down a challenge.

"Fine. Here, look." He showed Tai how to beat the eggs evenly, then pour it onto the heated surface, how to tell when it was ready to put the filling in and fold it in half, and how to get it off the stove without breaking it.

Tai tried it a couple of times before he got a good one, and then he crowed with satisfaction and set to making more beside him. Matt had to admit the wild-haired boy was a quick learner.

A couple of omelets in, Tai asked, "Is something up with you and T.K. again? You look down."

Just when things were getting easy between them, too. Matt, having started to relax, tensed up again. "You wouldn't understand," he said gruffly.

"Try me." Matt turned to growl an answer. The look on Tai's broad, open face stopped him. He looked not pitying but challenging. Matt hesitated, wondering if it was an act. He discarded that notion immediately, however, as Tai probably wasn't smart enough to play mind games like that.

"I snapped at him when I shouldn't have."

"Aw, that's normal. Siblings fight all the time."

 _What would you know?_ Matt wanted to say. Tai didn't have a little sibling here he had to look after. He couldn't understand how stressed out Matt was feeling. "It wasn't a fight," he said out loud.

"So apologize. He'll forgive you. Hey, T.K.!" he yelled, before Matt could say anything about it.

T.K. came running over. Tai was his new hero, after all. "What is it, Tai?"

"Matt has something to say to you. I'll go help out Joe, okay?"

"Okay!" T.K. plopped himself down, Patamon perched on his head. "What is it, Matt? Ohh, that's a lot of omelets. I can't wait to eat them! I'm starving!"

"Me, too!" Patamon agreed.

"They do look delicious," even Gabumon chimed in.

Matt smiled down at the stove. "You can each help yourself to one now. I won't tell."

Gabumon hesitated, but T.K., giggling, looked exaggeratedly around like he was in a bad spy movie, before taking one from the pile. He split it carefully in half for Patamon and Gabumon. Then he did the same for himself, handing the other half to Matt.

"Thanks, squirt. Hey, T.K."

"Hm?" The kid's mouth was full of eggs, and he looked blissed out.

"I'm sorry about earlier."

"It's okay, Matt. I'm used to it." He looked genuinely as if he thought nothing more about it, but Matt felt a sting of self-recrimination. He didn't like that T.K. was "used to" his brother snapping at him.

"Hey, T.K.."

"Yeah?"

"What say, when we get back, I make some super-duper special omelets for you with everything in 'em?"

"Sure, Matt. That sounds great. But you know what?"

"What?"

"These are the best omelets I've ever tasted. I think scrambled egg omelets are the best there is in the whole world!"

T.K.'s smile was wide and innocent, and brighter than anything Matt knew.

  
END.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been hanging out on my hard drive for _seventeen years_ , if you can believe it. Hope it's not too out of date. ;)
> 
> * * *
> 
> If you enjoyed this story, you might try these:  
> [Why Davis?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/265638%20) (Digimon Adventure 02), by kuonji  
> [Moving On](https://archiveofourown.org/works/252991/chapters/392985) (Gundam SEED), by kuonji  
> [Thought of Those Regrets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3462062) (Digimon Adventure), by AikoIsari  
> [No Pets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7646908) (Digimon Adventure 02), by TottWriter  
> [The Addiction](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2622938) (Digimon Adventure 02), by caramelariana


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